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Posted: 12/23/2012 3:32:58 PM EST
I have a collapsed disk at L5S1 and it hurts pretty good. I've been putting surgery off because of all the horror stories I've read online and from others I know that have had it. I've got to have two rods installed and a fusion. According to my neurosurgeon, even a procedure such as this is out patient surgery . But when I told him that I live alone and didn't want to burden any good friends to babysit me, he said he would keep min in the hospital for a couple of days until I can learn how to get around and to keep the good pain meds pumping through me. I finally made up my mind to go ahead and make an appointment with the doc and schedule surgery after I woke up this morning and went to stand up after getting out of bed and I fell. Damn left leg didn't want to work right and I was at 12 on the 1-10 pain scale.

I normally keep the extreme pain manageable enough from taking 800 mgs of Motrin twice a day, and oxycodone when it really flares up. Sometimes it takes 40 mgs of oxy just to feel a LITTLE better, but not much. Well I had a buddy and fellow arfcom member take me to the ER this morning because I was in so much pain. Got a shot of Demerol and it did nothing, 20 minutes later I got a shot of dilaudid, It didn't help much either.

I've found the best way to keep the pain under control is by staying as active as I can so I can ignore the pain.

Any advice would surely be welcome. I really want to know if the surgery helped any of you that had it done as far as pain relief and recovery time.
Link Posted: 12/23/2012 3:43:20 PM EST
[#1]
I had the same thing 6 years ago. I am now about 98% pain free.

Recovery time was about 3 months.

The first 2 weeks flat out sucked.

I couldn't drive until the 4th week, so having some one lined up to get you groceries would be a good plan.
Link Posted: 12/23/2012 3:47:25 PM EST
[#2]
Quoted:
I have a collapsed disk at L5S1 and it hurts pretty good. I've been putting surgery off because of all the horror stories I've read online and from others I know that have had it. I've got to have two rods installed and a fusion. According to my neurosurgeon, even a procedure such as this is out patient surgery . But when I told him that I live alone and didn't want to burden any good friends to babysit me, he said he would keep min in the hospital for a couple of days until I can learn how to get around and to keep the good pain meds pumping through me. I finally made up my mind to go ahead and make an appointment with the doc and schedule surgery after I woke up this morning and went to stand up after getting out of bed and I fell. Damn left leg didn't want to work right and I was at 12 on the 1-10 pain scale.

I normally keep the extreme pain manageable enough from taking 800 mgs of Motrin twice a day, and oxycodone when it really flares up. Sometimes it takes 40 mgs of oxy just to feel a LITTLE better, but not much. Well I had a buddy and fellow arfcom member take me to the ER this morning because I was in so much pain. Got a shot of Demerol and it did nothing, 20 minutes later I got a shot of dilaudid, It didn't help much either.

I've found the best way to keep the pain under control is by staying as active as I can so I can ignore the pain.

Any advice would surely be welcome. I really want to know if the surgery helped any of you that had it done as far as pain relief and recovery time.


I had a blown L5-S1.  Extreme pain in the back of my knee and bottom of my foot from pressure on the nerve.  I couldn't support my weight on my left foot. I had a microdiskectomy and was back at work in four weeks.  My son will have the same surgery Jan 3.  Get a second opinion.
Link Posted: 12/23/2012 3:50:50 PM EST
[#3]
Do yourself a favor, look up Southeastern Spine Institute in Mt. Pleasant SC and make yourself an appointment to see Dr. Don Johnston.  He's one of the nations premiere back surgeons.  He did a double laminectomy on my over 13 years ago last month.  I have been a shining example of back surgery success, and considering of losing the 40 lbs he told me to, I've gained that much.   If anything, it was his after surgery care that made the difference.  The neurosurgeons I say didn't saw squat about after surgery care or therapy.  And people I knew that went to them had complications due to tissue scarring binding to the spinal column.  
I may sound like I'm pimping him hard, but that man changed my life forever, and in a good way.
Link Posted: 12/23/2012 4:00:05 PM EST
[#4]
Two level  lumbar fusion with Bak implants

I checked doubled check and even talked with 6 different surgeons they all said 90% of back surgery's should be from the front.

Had mine done that way and since 1999 never had a proplem
Link Posted: 12/23/2012 4:05:42 PM EST
[#5]
I had microdiskectomy (sp?) two years ago. The pain prior to the surgery would leave me laying on the couch with tears coming from my eyes. I woke up from surgery and wanted to walk to my hospital room. That night I got to walk around the floor. The next morning I went home. I didn't get cleared to go back to work for 4 months. Mainly because I am firefighter and the Dr. Wanted my back as strong as possible. I am essentially pain free with a few bad days thrown in there here and there.

Edit: mine had began to affect the nerves that controlled my bladder and bowels, once the neuro surgeon heard that, he said the next open operating table was mine.
Link Posted: 12/23/2012 4:08:37 PM EST
[#6]
I've been dealing with back pain for two years now.  Latest MRI shows disc degeneration between L2-3, L3-4, L4-5 and L5-S1.  Every 3-4 months I get an LESI (lumbar epidural spinal injection) with 80mg of Kenalog which knocks down the irritation by the second day and I'm good to go, for a while.  Then the pain creeps back into the lower back, right hip and both calves.  

10mg of Vicodin will knock it mostly down for at best 3 hours, supposed to last 8, never has.  Doc moved me up to 10mg of Percocet.

Had a surgical consult a week ago.  He said I'm not a candidate, not enough damage yet.  No nerve compression, no slippage.  Not what I was hoping to hear.  Tired of the epidurals, tired of the pain meds, just tired....

Going to find another doc for a second opinion.  I was hoping he would have been able to just shave the bone a little to give the exiting nerves some breathing room.
Link Posted: 12/23/2012 4:12:05 PM EST
[#7]
L4-L5-S1 here and it has made my life 100% better.  It'll be sore for about a year but the pain slowly goes away.
Link Posted: 12/23/2012 4:15:19 PM EST
[#8]
I am in the same boat as the op. I literally feel your pain. I am 8 on the scale on good days. Some days are pretty miserable. The pain takes over everything in your life.

Keep active is keeping me going. Sitting kills me and my right leg.

L5-S1 is what they are going to fuse sometime in the future when the pain gets to bad. I found 1 success story on youtube and about 100 non success stories.

I would check all of your options before surgery. Inversion tables, acupuncture, some of the other "remedies or healers" Just my opinion.

good luck.
Link Posted: 12/23/2012 4:24:33 PM EST
[#9]
Had laminectomey/discectomey thingie L5-S1 in May of '09. Didn't help at all with the extreme nerve pain I get in my legs, feet and hips.

Trying to get into UT hospitals internal medicine dept. right now, I have crappy insurance through my employer, only covers max 25K/yr and I have been trying to find any Dr. that can help me that takes it for 6 months now. Buying a policy myself would be useless now due to pre-existing condition clause.

If you have good ins, I would definitly get at least 2 opinions from unrelated neurosurgeons. Seems they all have a wide opinion capacity from "You need immediate fusion" to " I can't see anything wrong at all with your spine Mr. 2506jet"
Link Posted: 12/23/2012 4:27:56 PM EST
[#10]
If you don't have any permanent nerve damage yet I would definitely try inversion first.  I had the same disc herniated in 1994 and went through micro- indoscopic surgery in 1995 with good results, but think it could have been avoided entirely now with my inversion table.  I have 5 bulging disc now and it has kept me going for many years with just occassional use when I have a flare up.  I worked for a year in my carpet cleaning service before having surgery and ended up with some significant nerve damage in my left leg.
Link Posted: 12/23/2012 4:28:27 PM EST
[#11]
Quoted:
Had laminectomey/discectomey thingie L5-S1 in May of '09. Didn't help at all with the extreme nerve pain I get in my legs, feet and hips.

Trying to get into UT hospitals internal medicine dept. right now, I have crappy insurance through my employer, only covers max 25K/yr and I have been trying to find any Dr. that can help me that takes it for 6 months now. Buying a policy myself would be useless now due to pre-existing condition clause.

If you have good ins, I would definitly get at least 2 opinions from unrelated neurosurgeons. Seems they all have a wide opinion capacity from "You need immediate fusion" to " I can't see anything wrong at all with your spine Mr. 2506jet"


I can help you.  
Link Posted: 12/23/2012 4:29:13 PM EST
[#12]
Quoted:
Quoted:
Had laminectomey/discectomey thingie L5-S1 in May of '09. Didn't help at all with the extreme nerve pain I get in my legs, feet and hips.

Trying to get into UT hospitals internal medicine dept. right now, I have crappy insurance through my employer, only covers max 25K/yr and I have been trying to find any Dr. that can help me that takes it for 6 months now. Buying a policy myself would be useless now due to pre-existing condition clause.

If you have good ins, I would definitly get at least 2 opinions from unrelated neurosurgeons. Seems they all have a wide opinion capacity from "You need immediate fusion" to " I can't see anything wrong at all with your spine Mr. 2506jet"


I can help you.  


IM sent
Link Posted: 12/23/2012 4:35:47 PM EST
[#13]
Have the bak cages instead of bone. I ride a lot on my road bike and work out doing squats deadlifts etc.
Link Posted: 12/23/2012 5:01:13 PM EST
[#14]
I did a whole lot of research on back surgeries before my appointment with neurosurgeon. He took his time to answer everything I asked to the best of his knowledge and I never once detected any bullshit from him. I was interested in getting a disc replacement instead of a fusion. He told me they are pretty damn successful but....undesirable side affects in males shot that idea right up . I eve asked him if my "hip" action would be affected. He laughed his ass off and said probably not enough to worry about
Link Posted: 12/23/2012 5:09:48 PM EST
[#15]
Quoted:
I did a whole lot of research on back surgeries before my appointment with neurosurgeon. He took his time to answer everything I asked to the best of his knowledge and I never once detected any bullshit from him. I was interested in getting a disc replacement instead of a fusion. He told me they are pretty damn successful but....undesirable side affects in males shot that idea right up . I eve asked him if my "hip" action would be affected. He laughed his ass off and said probably not enough to worry about


Good luck.

If you can take 40mg of oxy at once with little to no effect then it is going to be interesting to see how they are going to manage your post op pain.
Link Posted: 12/23/2012 5:10:09 PM EST
[#16]
dt
Link Posted: 12/23/2012 5:19:10 PM EST
[#17]
Quoted:
Quoted:
I did a whole lot of research on back surgeries before my appointment with neurosurgeon. He took his time to answer everything I asked to the best of his knowledge and I never once detected any bullshit from him. I was interested in getting a disc replacement instead of a fusion. He told me they are pretty damn successful but....undesirable side affects in males shot that idea right up . I eve asked him if my "hip" action would be affected. He laughed his ass off and said probably not enough to worry about


Good luck.

If you can take 40mg of oxy at once with little to no effect then it is going to be interesting to see how they are going to manage your post op pain.


I know. I'm worried about that also. I have built up a crazy tolerance to pain meds. Just in the past 6 years I've had 3 shoulder surgeries, a twisted knee, crushed left hand, and 3 failed root canals that was followed by an implant to replace it.

When I first hurt my back, back when it was just herniated and not collapsed, I told my general MD that I was sick and tired of taking the pills. He put me on a transdermal patch 50 mcgs. It worked great but I was a zombie. I had an epidural that helped 100% and I just quit wearing that patch. BAD IDEA to just stop. I thought I had the worst flu in my life, only to find out that I was going through withdrawals. It sucked bad and I will never take the pain meds daily again no matter how much I hurt.
Link Posted: 12/23/2012 5:24:12 PM EST
[#18]
Have you tried physical therapy yet?  There is very little good evidence based medicine in spinal surgery.  Make sure to get a second opinion before you have anything done.  Ask your family doc what surgeon in your area seems to be the most conservative (operates the least) and go see him (spine neurosurgeons are in general better than spine trained orthopedic surgeons). Ask if there are any good prospective studies showing that people with your pathology are better off in the long run compared to someone treated with physical therapy/optimal medical management.  

That goes for most anything in medicine....if they can't show you a good prospective studying showing that an intervention is better than nonintervention, don't do it (for fun, ask your local cardiologist about the COURAGE trial.....shady ones will only have bad things to say).

Remember,  the second you fuse two vertebrae, you will start accelerating degenerative changes in others (your biomechanics get messed up).
Link Posted: 12/23/2012 5:26:22 PM EST
[#19]
There needs to be a sticky that says contact me for back problems before you go down the wrong road.  These threads are far too common.  

OP, if you want help, IM me.

<------------  Fourteen years in the spine business.
Link Posted: 1/20/2013 4:40:54 PM EST
[#20]
what about the nuvasive thing that ufc fighter Nate quarry had done?
Link Posted: 1/20/2013 7:16:03 PM EST
[#21]



Quoted:

I know. I'm worried about that also. I have built up a crazy tolerance to pain meds. Just in the past 6 years I've had 3 shoulder surgeries, a twisted knee, crushed left hand, and 3 failed root canals that was followed by an implant to replace it.



When I first hurt my back, back when it was just herniated and not collapsed, I told my general MD that I was sick and tired of taking the pills. He put me on a transdermal patch 50 mcgs. It worked great but I was a zombie. I had an epidural that helped 100% and I just quit wearing that patch. BAD IDEA to just stop. I thought I had the worst flu in my life, only to find out that I was going through withdrawals. It sucked bad and I will never take the pain meds daily again no matter how much I hurt.


You forgot the time you tried to catch your fall off of the rotten pallets with your bicep on the breaker box and left pieces of fat on the corner of the box.



 
Link Posted: 1/20/2013 7:32:13 PM EST
[#22]
Had a microdiscectomy at L5-S1 almost two years ago. The four months before surgery were HELL. EVERY time I stood-up from a sitting position I would drop to my knees with the worst "charlie horse" of my life. Did that 30 times a day. Took my about 30 minutes to get out of bed in the morning. I was in BAD shape and in a lot of pain. Before surgery, they tried two epidurals and a nerve-root-block on me. None of those procedures did any good at all. The surgery did. But I still suffer from daily sciatic pain. It's MUCH better than before the surgery. But some days are worse than others. I need to find a long-term solution to try to reverse some of this damage. I just turned 45 yesterday and some days I feel like I am 70. I have tried to get back into doing abs workouts several times. Even though I ease into it, it still ends-up forcing me back into the clinic for pain meds because no matter how easy I take it, my back can't handle it. I've got a Teeter hang-up and need to pull it back out and start using it.

To the sufferers of pain who don't respond to narcotics... I would say for your worst days you should try to get the doc to give you prednisone. I was on it 3-4 times during the months leading up to my surgery and it was the ONLY thing that made me feel normal again. It was like a miracle. The "baby" Medrol pack was minimally helpfull. But during my worst times, I got them to put me on 60mg a day (3 20mg pills) and that was when I felt like I was nearly normal. It was almost dangerous, in that I felt so normal on those days I would try to do normal things (as in LIFTING). At any rate... they don't like to give pred because it's a steriod and has negative side-effects if used long term. But damn... it sure got me through the pain. Had a lot of oxy over the years for my back issues. Always enjoyed the buzz... but would have traded that warm, fuzzy feeling ANY time for the pain-killing ability of prednisone. I don't say that lightly, because pred basically killed my mom at 52. She had been on it for two years because of acute arthritis. Her weight ballooned and she had a heart attack. But when you're in chronic, miserable pain... sometimes you don't care what the side effects are. You just want some friggin pain relief!

P.S. I slipped on the ice last week and landed flat on my back. I was pretty banged-up and stiff/sore. The wife and I had a trip to Vegas in a couple of days and I asked for some pred in case I seized-up down there. They didn't want to give me more, because I'd had a Medrol pack a month or two ago. But they did give me Toradol. It's okay. Not the miracle drug that pred is... but better than the 800mg ibuprofins that I take once or twice a day. Going to get my inversion table out tomorrow and start working towards a change again tomorrow. Tired of just getting by every day and waiting until I'm bad enough to have to have another surgery. One way or the other... I'm going to GET better after two years of just getting-up by day to day. Bought a runner's diary today to track my exercize as well. Can't run, but I can walk my dogs for miles and I can get on the treadmill.
Link Posted: 1/20/2013 8:18:22 PM EST
[#23]
I have a severe rupture of my L4-L5 right now. Ortho spine surgeon put me on Lyrica. By God it's working. He's giving me 3 weeks of PT to see if things improve before we talk about root-rootering my spinal canal. Ask your doc about Lyrica if you can. Got me from 40-50mg of Oxycodone/day down to 10 today.  My Right leg has been the most affected by pain & weakness, and I can't drive.  As soon as I can get off Percocet and get driving, I can go back to work. I need that soon, as my boss is catching heat for letting me telecommute.
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